Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

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Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

Directed by	Albert Lewin
Produced by	Joe Kaufmann Albert Lewin
Written by	Albert Lewin
Starring	Ava Gardner James Mason Nigel Patrick Sheila Sim Harold Warrender Mario Cabré Marius Goring
Music by	Alan Rawsthorne
Cinematography	Jack Cardiff
Distributed by	Romulus Films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	1951
Running time	122 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is a 1951 drama film made by Romulus Films and released by MGM. It was directed by Albert Lewin and produced by Joe Kaufmann and Albert Lewin from his own screenplay, based on the legend of The Flying Dutchman. It starred Ava Gardner and James Mason, and featured Nigel Patrick , Sheila Sim, Harold Warrender, Mario Cabré and Marius Goring. It was shot by cinematographer Jack Cardiff.

(A film) about a woman unable to love and a man unable to die – a baroque synthesis of classical myth and Germanic legend – Susan Felleman, author of Botticelli in Hollywood: The Films of Albert Lewin

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner) is the admired star of a small group of Anglo-American expatriates in the small Spanish port of Esperanza (the film was shot in Tossa de Mar). All the men love her (or think they do), but Pandora is unable to love anyone but herself, and destroys her admirers with the demands she makes on them, claiming that the measure of love is how much you are willing to sacrifice.

One day, the Dutch captain Hendrick van der Zee (James Mason) arrives in Esperanza. Pandora swims out to his yacht and finds him painting a picture of her. Inevitably, they fall in love. At one point, Hendrick asks Pandora if she would be willing to die for him, which she affirms. When she in turn asks him what he would give up for her, he replies that he would sacrifice his immortal soul, and leaves her.

Shortly afterwards, Pandora learns that Hendrick van der Zee is, in fact, The Flying Dutchman, who murdered his innocent wife in a jealous rage and is doomed to sail the seas until he finds a woman who is willing to die for him. Hendrick has already left Esperanza, but Pandora once again swims out to his yacht, and they drown together.